Hello, Masked Poets!
What is the job of a poet?
poets are tour guides
to the forbidden places
lurking in our souls
Poetry is for Ugly People
Poetry is for you, the one with the right eye that’s slightly larger than your left eye. It’s for you, the one who is too thin, and me, the one who is too fat. Poetry is for all of us with scars, burns, and birthmarks.
It’s for you, the one with one leg noticeably shorter than the other leg, and for you the one with only one leg, and for you the one with no legs. It’s for you, the one who is too urban or too foreign or too rural or too much of a color others can’t see past.
Poetry is for anyone who has ever looked in the mirror and cried.
Poetry is for people who are too boy or too girl, and for people who are not women enough or not man enough.
It’s for you, the one who talks too much and too loudly. Poetry is for you, the one who speaks too quietly, and you the one who doesn't speak at all. It’s for bad listeners and good daydreamers.
Poetry is for the broke and brokenhearted. It’s for lovers and victims, dancers and plastic water bottle acrobats.
Poetry is for anyone who wonders if a grove of aspens can think or what horrors the stars have seen.
Poetry is for the ones who are ugly on the outside. It’s for those of us who are ugly on the inside—all blood and guts, secrets and lies, private bigotries and quiet betrayals.
It’s for you if you’re too much, and for you if you’re never enough. It’s for you if you’re too old, too young, too early, or too late. It’s for you if you want to hide or you if you need to be seen.
Poetry is for us ugly people—it’s for me and you.
Artist Note
I wrote the haiku at the opening of this post on April 30. 2020. I took my first stab at illustrating this poem sometime shortly thereafter. I made another attempt last March. I didn’t have the skills last year to make this comic look right. I don’t always go back and redo work I don’t like—if I did that I’d never make anything new. But I felt this poem needed a better home.
The micro-essay/prose-poem Poetry is for Ugly People has been growing in my brain like mold on bread for a few months. The title came to me first. I loved it but had nothing specific to go with it. Every so often a new concept would come to me to put to the title. I let the idea ferment. I don’t write down general, amorphous ideas because that’s a good way to memorialize a bad idea and stop the evolution of it into a good idea. On April 13th I sat down and wrote a horrible first draft in my notebook. I knew there was a lot wrong with the poem but didn’t know how to fix it. I just let the work sit until today. I was flipping through my notebook, and I knew what I wanted to do with Poetry is for Ugly People. Now, for better or worse, it’s here.
Commercial Note
Today I learned from Winston Maolone of
that you can link to your books on your Substack profile. You can check mine out right here. I’m still working on customizing everything about this newsletter. I’m currently focused on personalizing the intro emails to paid and new subscribers.Did you enjoy this edition of Weirdo Poetry? Share it with your people! Forward it, print it out and mail it, or send it telepathically to the people and creatures on the astral plane!
Be the poetry you want to see in the world!
Cheers,
Jason
P.S. Ana Wang was kind enough to mention this newsletter in her excellent Poetry Camp series in her newsletter
. Check out Day 3: Spectrum for a great discussion of rules, rule-breaking, and poetry—and make sure to read the other days too!
I love this. Poetry is for the ugly in us. Or at least what we have decided is ugly. Funny thought isn’t it?
Thank you for sharing. It’s very beautiful.
the real we need; great job Jason!👍